MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — June 22, 2016 — Based on its recent analysis of the ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) scanners market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Zetec with the 2016 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation. Zetec has set a new market benchmark for corrosion mapping with the Paintbrush, an extremely agile scanner that can operate on both flat and curved surfaces, providing the confidence of 100% area coverage. Its two encoded wheels that track the position of the scanner in real time allow the operator to visually identify areas that have not been covered. Coupled with the industry-leading TOPAZ® ultrasonic instrument family and UltraVision® software, Zetec’s NDT Paintbrush is the best solution available for corrosion and wall-thickness mapping.

Since conventional X-Y scanners and arm scanners present an X-Y map of the area or a map over two axes, they cannot work on curved surfaces; if the test area is bigger than the arms of the X-Y or the arm scanner; full area coverage is not possible. Wheel probe scanners, on the other hand, can work on curved and flat surfaces seamlessly but they are unable to encode the second axis, resulting in mapping misalignment and inaccuracy.

“Zetec’s NDT Paintbrush ultrasonic scanner is the only solution available in the market that is flexible enough to offer precise and thorough coverage of both flat and curved surfaces, with no misalignment,” said Frost & Sullivan Principal Lead Nikhil Jain. “The Paintbrush, along with its powerful phased array ultrasonic instrument family, TOPAZ, identifies the real-time location of the probe, ensuring 100-percent coverage has been achieved.”

The Paintbrush offers many innovative features that significantly improve inspection performance. One example is around coverage - If there is overlap, the software takes into account the minimum thickness at the same position. If a portion of the test area has not been scanned, a real-time image will be displayed on the scanner. It boasts the highest accuracy of pitting, corrosion, and erosion detection.

A strength of Zetec’s Paintbrush is its agility. The scanner is designed with magnetic wheels that stick to a metallic surface for easier use. For non-metallic surfaces, the wheels can be detached and replaced with composite dedicated wheels. The product’s intuitive design makes user operation simple and quick.

The Paintbrush, when used in conjunction with Zetec’s high performance TOPAZ32 instrument, becomes a very powerful solution for corrosion mapping: no other fully integrated ultrasonic instrument in the market can match TOPAZ32 processing power. TOPAZ32 can produce reports in half the time of other instruments, for even faster inspections.

“Zetec’s UltraVision software integrated with TOPAZ instruments is also among the most advanced, intuitive, and easy to use in the market,” noted Jain. “UltraVision 3D is an extension, and when integrated with the Paintbrush, can provide a 3D plot of the corrosion data. This enables depth reading, delivering actionable information to customers.”

Overall, Zetec has done a remarkable job of understanding customer needs in the ultrasonic NDT scanners market and developing an innovative product to address those needs. Its Paintbrush is uniquely positioned for sustained success because it addresses the core issues of quality, functionality, and reliability.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies. The award recognizes the value-added features/benefits of the product and the increased return on investment that it offers customers, which improves customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.